uninstalling programs
 

is there a way to uninstall programs which were installed from source files via make install command? is there something like Windows register on linux?

Usually just:
make uninstall

by register- I asume you mean registry? no there is not.

You might want to check out CheckInstall to manage source code installations/uninstallation

# Guides to software management
LNAG - How do I install a program I downloaded from the Internet?
Rute Guide's software explanation

So in order to uninstall is it necessary to keep the files in the directory that are used for "make install" or is it adequate to keep the original TAR that I downloaded?

Up to this point, I have deleted the compiled program install directories once the program was installed and working correctly. Could these programs be uninstalled by downloading the source files and doing "make uninstall"? Is that really the only way of cleanly uninstalling programs?

I didn't really have a clue what I was doing a few months ago when I started using Linux. There are probably several programs that can be uninstalled because I either don't need them or because I have since installed newer versions of programs. KDE and Qt are examples of programs that I installed from the RH CD but have since installed newer versions. Is there any way to get rid of those old programs aside from reinstalling the OS?

Well you can just delete the files or download the tar again and use the same configure options.

so all i have to do is extract source files, compile the source with the same configuration as i used to install it, and type make uninstall. thnx a lot, you've helped me greatly ^^.

oh and btw, yeah i wanted to say registry not register (my mistake =P).